


Just Say It

by LadyDrace



Series: The Dog Walker 'Verse [5]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Declarations Of Love, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-24
Updated: 2014-10-24
Packaged: 2018-02-22 10:22:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2504384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyDrace/pseuds/LadyDrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam is the first to say it. And Gabriel... well, he freaks out. Same ol', same ol'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Say It

**Author's Note:**

> I did promise you all fluff to make up for that last one, didn't I? Well here you go! Super quick beta by Mithrel. Thank you!

Sam was the first to say it.

 

Gabriel noticed Sam looking at him across the dinner table with a sappy sort of face happening, and stopped his enthusiastic eating. Sam had made that eggplant pasta thing again, which Gabriel frowned at repeatedly for its high vegetable content, but couldn't help but _inhale_ , because it was just that good.

 

“What?” he asked with a half-smile. “Do I have cheese on my nose again?”

 

Sam just shook his head, and if possible, his look got even more gooey.

 

“Then what?”

 

“I just...” Sam sighed and put down his fork. “I think I just realized that I love you.” His eyes felt like honey on Gabriel's face, warm and slow and just so massively full of emotion that Gabriel had half a mind to run away screaming. He'd only had those words said to him in a romantic context a handful of times, and every single time had been unbelievably scary. This time was no different, but alongside the terror was also a new and intoxicating glow of pure _joy_. Gabriel was glued to his chair and for a long moment he just breathed and stared, unsure of where to go from there.

 

Amazingly, as if reading his mind, Sam then shook his head and went back to eating, effectively defusing the moment. “Ignore me, I'm just having a chick-flick moment. It happens a lot, just ask Dean.”

 

For some reason, Sam brushing it off made Gabriel feel loss, rather than the relief he'd expected, so he reached out and put his hand on Sam's arm, making him pause and look up again.

 

“No, Sam, I... don't think I will.” He hadn't really planned further, but Sam's eyes were shining and his dimples were deepening, so there was just no way in Hell Gabriel could stop himself from getting up and kissing that dopey smile.

 

Gabriel couldn't say it back, not yet. But Sam seemed perfectly happy with what he _could_ give.

 

The pasta was cold by the time they resurfaced.

 

* * *

 

The phone was picked up on the fifth ring. “Castiel Novak speaking.”

 

“Hey, Cas. I hate to sound like a flashback from high school, but... could you come over?”

 

“Of course. Is everything all right?”

 

“Yes. No. I dunno. I think I'm having kind of a crisis.”

 

Castiel was quiet for a long moment. “Does this have something to do with Sam?”

 

“Well, yeah, I guess it does.”

 

Again Castiel was quiet, and Gabriel squirmed with discomfort. As the silence drew longer and longer Gabriel felt more and more high strung, and by the time Castiel finally spoke again he was ready to burst.

 

“Gabriel-”

 

“Sam said he loved me!” he blurted out, so fast the words almost blended together.

 

“I'll be right over.”

 

Less than 20 minutes later Castiel came through the door. Sam was at his lectures, so Gabriel was pacing alone in the living room. Castiel approached him as one would a skittish horse, cautiously and quietly.

 

“He told me last night,” Gabriel began unprompted. “Over pasta. Just like that. No build-up, no grand fucking declarations or anything, just... like he just had the thought and wanted to share it, just because he thought it was awesome.”

 

“What did you do then?” Castiel asked gently. Gabriel almost laughed at how careful Castiel was being, but then again, he'd known Gabriel for more than half of his life, and had seen him through more than a few relationships, so he had to concede it was probably the right way to approach this. He did feel awfully brittle. As if one small push in the wrong place would make him shatter like flawed glass.

 

“I didn't run, if that's what you're asking.”

 

“That's not what I'm asking. But I'm glad.”

 

Gabriel snorted. Only Castiel could sound like a proud parent over a friend managing to not be a douche.

 

“I didn't say it back, either,” he continued in a low voice. “I'm not even sure I can.”

 

“You can,” Castiel stated firmly. “If you feel it, you can say it.”

 

“That's easy for you to say, you've only said it to someone like that maybe twice. You're not exactly a wealth of experience here.”

 

“Perhaps not. But I do know you. I have seen you with various partners over the years, and I don't think I have ever seen you this settled. If ever there was a time I thought you would be ready to say it back, it would be now.”

 

Gabriel ran his hands through his hair. His already thinning hair, goddammit. He forced himself not to think about it, because if he did he would just go hide in bed or something.

 

Castiel watched for a moment and then shrugged. “It's up to you, of course. But I have faith in you.”

 

“Of course you do,” Gabriel sighed. “But, come on, how do you even... I don't even know _how_ to say it!”

 

“Not true. You've said it to me. And Balthazar.”

 

“That's different, you guys already know I love you like family.”

 

The sound Castiel made was... interesting.

 

“Did... did you just _scoff_ at me?!” Gabriel asked, jaw hanging open.

 

“Yes, I did. Because you're being ridiculous. This is no different.”

 

“Of course it fucking is! This isn't like a drunken slap on the back and 'I love you, man', Cas! Casual won't cut it this time!”

 

“Why not?”

 

Gabriel almost did a double take. “Be-because... it's too important!”

 

“So you're saying Balthazar and I were less important to you then, than Sam is to you now?”

 

“That's not... you're twisting my words, asshole!”

 

Castiel actually laughed. “Gabriel. I can promise you that no matter how you say it, Sam will be happy. He'll most likely be happy even if you never say it. The only person making this difficult is _you_.”

 

Goddammit. Gabriel absolutely _hated_ it when someone else was right and he was wrong. He crossed his arms over his chest and sulked.

 

“You know I'm right.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, no need to rub it in.”

 

A long moment passed before Castiel put a hand on Gabriel's shoulder and ducked his head until he caught Gabriel's eye. “Do you need me to hold your hand when you say it?”

 

“Get the fuck out of my house,” Gabriel sputtered, giving a half-hearted kick in Castiel's direction as he left the apartment, snickering to himself. Castiel wasn't usually the type to joke easily, but that just made the rare jokes he _did_ make all the more pointed. Obviously Sam's brother was a bad influence. A bad, _bad_ influence. Or maybe it was Balthazar. Shit, they _all_ were. Gabriel laughed helplessly to himself in the empty apartment. When even Castiel was sassing him, the world was obviously ending.

 

So. He decided he might as well just say it. And he did. Mid-orgasm. Because he was classy like that.

 

Sam said it back like it was no surprise at all, and then ate Gabriel out until he was sobbing into the pillow, and saying it over and over and _over_ again, just so Sam would never, _ever_ stop.

 

 _Hell, yeah_.

 

End.

 


End file.
